integrated vs discrete graphics card

Sorry guys I figured this might have been asked a million times but I couldn't find an answer specific to what I was looking for. Hopefully someone can help.

I am off to university soon so I'm looking to buy a new laptop.
Price range: 0-700
Need to have a good battery life. Preferably over 3hrs.
Less than 5.7 lbs cuz i'm carrying it around all the time.

I'm gonna stick with Asus and Lenovo due to their rep of good quality products.

Best deal I've found so far is Asus K53E-B1
for $671
i5 2410
6gb dram
640 gb 5400rpm hard drive
3 MP webcam
3 USB 2.0 (no fancy fast ones)
integrated intel 3000

I hear that, integrated graphics cards are crap. and I wonder
1. any way to install a better graphics card on top of that? (asus has 15.6 inch with 786p resolution...so i guess ill just get a faster game and not a better resolution from the game?)
2. if no, then is there a good laptop under 700 with a separate graphics card?
i was looking at some comps with i5 480 and a different graphics card. Compared to i5 2410 with integrated card. Which would be better?
Keep in mind, i need long battery life and I hear sandybridge really helps with that (Asus gives me 5+ hrs!) but I would also like to be able to replace components and play games at a higher quality.

 

You should definatly check out the What Notebook Should I Buy
What Notebook Should I Buy?

But the rule pretty much is that if you want to play games, don't get intergrated, unless you plan on getting an external gpu running.

 

Well that Intel 3000 isnt going to get you far in terms of gaming. But it should be fine for everyday things. As for upgrading graphics card I dont believe you can because it has integrated graphics. Generally unless it came with a graphics card already installed then you cant upgrade it as you would need a MXM slot. Also dont expect any new games to run smoothly(bad company 2, crysis 2, metro 2033). I bet you could play call of duty 4 pretty well though. And on the battery life you can expect pretty much half of what they say if your using wireless and doing demanding things on the laptop and running the display at full brightness.

 

Head over to Best Buy and buy a computer there [strictly for school]. They will also give you a FREE Xbox 360 from the Microsoft free xbox promo.

 

Yeah, thats what I did. Ended up selling the xbox for 175 on eBay was a pretty good deal. I would recommend that

 

If a laptop comes with an integrated GPU, you won't be able to install any discrete one. It's impossible.

If you want to play games, get a laptop with a reliable brand, any i5 processor, with 4 GB DDR3 RAM (no more, no less), ignore the rest and just find the one with the most powerful GPU your money can afford.

 

If it has an expresscard, Thunderbolt or accessible mPCIe slot then can add a eGPU. See http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...ards/418851-egpu-experiences.html#post5324240 .

14/15" Dell Vostro 3450/3550 and Lenovo E420/E520 are budget expresscard-equipped notebooks.

 

If you don't mind giving up CPU processing power, you might want to look at the AMD Llano based laptops. Not sure where you're located so these may not be available to you. HP's US site is offering the dv6zqe within your price range where the A8-3500M is the cheapest APU available paired with a Radeon 6620G Integrated GPU. AnandTech has some benchmarks based on a test unit sent to them by AMD to give you an idea of the 6620G's strength: AnandTech - The AMD Llano Notebook Review: Competing in the Mobile Market

 

Pretty good deal on a 13" Vostro 3350 with dGPU: NEW Dell Vostro13.3" HDLED,i5-2410M 2.3 SandyBridge,4GB,AMD Rad HD7450M-1GB,320GB7200,Backlit KB,8X DVD+/-RW,802.11b/g/n/BT3.0,Win7HP64,HDMI,USB3.0,8-Cell,WebCam,8in1 Reader $679FS - Slickdeals.net

 

Agreed. If your goal is to achieve playable framerates while minimizing wallet impact, Llano is tough to beat. Check out HP's new dv6z. It's FAR better for gaming than your Asus and around the same price (with a coupon).

Radeon HD 7450!?!?! That's a hell of a deal as well. Shame it isn't available with an HD+ screen.

 

it was a typo, its a 5470 or 6470

 

Not at all. The Dell Online Store: Build Your System Note the GDDR5 memory! I've been wondering when AMD will reveal its 7000-series GPUs...

 

it is a typo the card dont exist, and 160 cores is way below the 6600/6700 line which is 480, the 5600/5700/6500 line is 400 core, the 5400 line is 80 core

the only option is the 6470/6490 that is equipped with 160 core

 

Ah, I guess you could be right. It would have to be a 6490 though, since the 6470 only comes with DDR3 memory bus.